How does growth in the Australian League compare to MLS?

Discussion in 'MLS: General' started by Scotty, Aug 26, 2006.

  1. FuzzyForeigner

    Oct 29, 2003
    WA
    Club:
    Seattle
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    the main and ONLY reason A league is doing well is because what other sports are popular in australia besides Cricket and Rugby? NONE.

    DONT COMPARE A LEAGUE TO MLS. MLS HAS A LOT MORE COMPETITION TO DEAL WITH.
     
  2. LINCOLN CITY FC

    Oct 8, 2004
    Lincolnshire,England
    Club:
    Lincoln City FC
    I think you will find that the A-league in Australia has just as much competition as MLS does.

    The Australians number one spectator sport is AFL(Aussie rules football) which had an average attendance last year of 36,551.

    After that you have two codes of rugby Super 14 (Rugby Union) average attendance 26,197 and NRL (Rugby League) average attendance last year 17,346. You also have cricket and basketball in Australia as spectator sports. Add into that Formula 1, Bathurst (touring cars),Tennis (Australian Open), Athletics and swimming. The upshot is the Aussies are just sport mad.

    What you also have to remember when looking at these figures is that Australia has a population less than a tenth of the USA which makes them even more remarkable.:eek:
     
  3. jade1mls

    jade1mls Member

    Jul 9, 2006
    Seattle
    Don't they also play cricket in Australia?
     
  4. Caesar

    Caesar Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 3, 2004
    Oztraya
    Well, I'm not sure what the competition is like in the US but I can definitely tell you that in Australia it's more than just cricket and rugby. Including the A-League we have 6 fairly popular nation-wide professional sports leagues (the others are Aussie rules football, rugby league, rugby union, basketball and cricket) plus other professional sports like the national V8 Supercars series (I guess our verson of NASCAR/touring cars). Right now, soccer sits pretty low on that ladder.
     
  5. sirmarksalot

    sirmarksalot New Member

    Aug 6, 2006
  6. pylon

    pylon New Member

    Mar 28, 2004
    Chi-Det corridor
    There's a pretty good list of world sports league attendance figures on Wikipedia.
    Our man kenntomash's website is referenced a few times in the entry.

    I was surprised to see the AFL has the third highest per game attendance of any major sports league in the world. Only the US' NFL and Germany's Bundesliga attract more spectators per game. Obviously Major League Baseball has the highest total numbers in the world.
     
  7. myshap

    myshap Member

    Jun 19, 2002
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    No there was not. There was some clubs in APSL that were maybe 4 or 5 years old, but certainly none that were decades old.

    Also, when the APSL owners refused to join in with MLS, they in fact DID force MLS to invent new franchises.

    Please stop with your blatant lies.
     
  8. FuzzyForeigner

    Oct 29, 2003
    WA
    Club:
    Seattle
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    Dude, i am sorry but i dont think I would be off by saying that in the US, the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB each have funds larger than some small country economies. We are talking billion dollar businesses. Sure there is competition everywhere, but NOWHERE close to here in america. Sorry, i think my statement is correct and not overstated.
     
  9. Sempuukyaku

    Sempuukyaku Member+

    Apr 30, 2002
    Seattle, WA
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    I'm trying to tell myself that you really aren't THAT MUCH of a dolt....but by golly you keep proving me wrong.


    It's kinda diffcult to reinvent "new" franchises from a league formed BACK IN THE 70S THAT'S ALREADY DEAD. Don't ya think?


    Stop being so ridiculously benign and thick-headed :rolleyes:
     
  10. Sempuukyaku

    Sempuukyaku Member+

    Apr 30, 2002
    Seattle, WA
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    Ah....thanks for the correction Swiss.


    Well hell that even strenghtens my argument more. Maybe not so much in the case of the A-League because there are still a lot of new teams, but the point stands nonetheless.
     
  11. Auxodium

    Auxodium New Member

    Apr 11, 2003
    Perth, Australia
    Not trying to sound rude here but i think the A-League has been a little more successful than the MLS is due to the short interval between domestic leagues. Australia has an 18 month hiatus, whereas the MLS was in 1996 and when did the NASL fold? 1984 or something... a while ago is my point. :p And i think that the population of the nation is probably more readily geared for football than the US as NFL is massively popular and is very dominant in media etc. Plus the game is seen in my view as 'non american', whereas in australia with such a large immigrant population from europe and overseas, the football interest they took with them to their new country. But it wasn't utilised properly until now.

    I think that is the same situation with the MLS... it is only NOW in the last 2 years have they started to market their football more properly. And now they are getting results.
     
  12. RichardL

    RichardL BigSoccer Supporter

    May 2, 2001
    Berkshire
    Club:
    Reading FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    so you think that missing out a country's most popular sport in a list of competing sports still makes your statement correct?

    Aussie Rules and Rugby League, not to mention cricket, are very popular, but also with the first two there are multiple well supported teams per city in the bigger cities.

    How rich the leagues are in the US has no bearing on whether sports in Australia have to compete for fans.
     
  13. Nico Limmat

    Nico Limmat Member+

    Oct 24, 1999
    Dubai, UAE
    Club:
    Grasshopper Club Zürich
    Nat'l Team:
    Switzerland
    There's more, some of the newly founded A-League clubs simply replaced NSL teams. The NZ Knights for example (for the NZ Kingz) or Queensland Roar (for the Brisbane Lions.)

    Not sure how many "brand new" teams there are, maybe an Australian poster can help out...
     
  14. triplet1

    triplet1 BigSoccer Supporter

    Jul 25, 2006
    Jimmy Barnes has a new song out for Sydney FC -- you can make your own judgment about the music, but the video shows some clips from some Sydney FC games, including their Grand Final win (in the playoffs), which will give you a glimpse of what the match experience is like.

    BTW, the video features the supporters group (the Cove), and to me, the best part is at the very end when the supporters sing "Sydney Till I Die."

    Here is the page with the link:

    http://www.sydneyfc.com/default.aspx?s=newsdisplay&id=4736&pageid=489
     
  15. jade1mls

    jade1mls Member

    Jul 9, 2006
    Seattle
    Terrible song...
    New England Revolution CLEARLY missed their chance with Clint Dempsey....
     
  16. Stan Collins

    Stan Collins Member+

    Feb 26, 1999
    Silver Spring, MD
    I would think it's a little early to say that, as the current arrangement is only in its second season.

    To me that would make what MLS has done all the more remarkable.

    I found it most interesting that the league chose to immediately turn about 75% of the TV money over to the clubs to shore up losses/subsidize the payroll. Seems like to me this kind of thing will work or it won't--none of this MLS kinda-sorta, hedge-your-bets, X-steps-forwards-Y-steps-back dance.

    That makes it sound like I don't like it, but I think it's the soundest business strategy, at least for MLS. Possible difference being, if the level of play goes up in Australia, possibly accompanies by continued good results internationally for club and country, the nation is likely to sit up and take a little more notice a little quicker. If MLS were to immediately pump three fourths of its new contract (about the same amount, interestingly enough) into the teams payrolls and operations, most us fans would be sorely disappointed with the results (which would be that even if the league got better and more interesting, not many Americans would pick up on it very quickly).
     
  17. triplet1

    triplet1 BigSoccer Supporter

    Jul 25, 2006
    Melbourne Victory defeated Sydney FC 3-2 in front of a record regular season match crowd of almost 40,000 fans at Melbourne's Telstra Dome, and, from the sound of it, a true rivalry was born.

    First, from a Sydney paper:

    Link:

    http://www.smh.com.au/news/football/no-dwight-but-plenty-of-spite/2006/09/03/1157222011031.html

    And the Melbourne account:

    Link:

    http://www.theage.com.au/news/soccer/victory-dance/2006/09/02/1156817155902.html

    A league can go a long way with a fierce rivalry between high quality teams in its two largest markets.
     
  18. jade1mls

    jade1mls Member

    Jul 9, 2006
    Seattle
    So it's kinda like DC United vs LA Galaxy? That's cool but I think the league will need more than one big rivalry to sustain interest.

    Like Queensland Roar needs to have Hyundai pay for a bunch of busses to send drunken fans down to Sydney FC and start fights. Then have said fans go back home and make a psuedo-documentary about Sydney FC's hooliganism and post it on google.

    Then you will get a proper rivalry hahahaa.....
     
  19. DixieDean

    DixieDean New Member

    Jun 4, 2004
    Nassau, Bahamas
    Attendances for the other A-League matches the same day as Melbourne vs. Sydney match were Newcastle Jets vs. Queensland Roar with 7,276, NZ Knights vs. Adelaide United with 4,100, and Perth Glory vs. Central Coast Mariners with 7,229.
     
  20. triplet1

    triplet1 BigSoccer Supporter

    Jul 25, 2006
    True, but those other matches represent teams that were in the bottom half of the league in attendance last year too -- although two of those gates were under last year's average.

    Still, if you look at the top four teams in last year's attendance (with Adelaide United yet to play at home), you have announced attendance of:

    Sydney FC: 19,274

    Melbourne Victory: 15,781; 39,730

    Queensland Roar: 20,606

    Not a bad start, IMO, and generally comparable to some of the higher drawing MLS teams.
     

  21. There is one big reason for that: Japanese and Korean fans are celebrety/stars orientated. They switch loyalty to a club when their favourite player changes the club he plays for. Middel East, as for instance the clubs in Europe, have a much more tribal connotation, so the loyalty is first to the club and derived from that to the players of the club.
     

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